The book, The Big Guns: Artillery 1914 - 1918,  tells the interesting story of how artillery became such an important factor during World War I.  The armies of all the warring parties realized soon after their soldiers bogged down in the trenches in 1914 that the classic infantry charge in the face of modern machine guns and other weapons had become nothing more than mass suicide.  Increasingly, the Gernerals turned to the use of artillery in order to break this stalemate.  The grand irony was that as each side hurled greater numbers of artillery shells on their opponent it had the effect of churning up the ground and causing each side to burrow further down into the soil thus making the stalemate that much worse.  The book "The Big Guns" presents a fairly comprehensive account of the part played by the big guns during World War I.  The major sections of this book are as follows: 1) The New Warfare; 2) Nery; 3) Verdun: The Storm Breaks; 4) The Somme Barrage; 5) Howitzers and Mortars; 6) Artillery in Mesopotamia; 7) Germany's Later Guns; 8) Big Bertha Bombards Paris; 9) The Guns of Passchendaele and 10) Anti-Aircraft Guns of the First World War.  In addition to an informative narrative, this book includes the following: 1) Approximately 30 vintage black and white photographs; 2) 26 color photographs; 3) 3 black and white illustrations; 4) 11 color illustrations; 5) About 58 artillery color illustrations and 6) 1 map.  This book is 64 pages and is in very good condition.  The editor is Bernard Fitzsimons with John Batchelor (color drawings).  Edition published in 1974.